If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll have seen several posts about the work by street art artist C215. And that’s really not very surprising, because he visits Barcelona quite frequently, is very good, and is very prolific.

He is star at portraiture and his work reflects the faces of both young and old people he cares deeply about (friends and family) or those that live a precarious life on the streets. Additionally, he also loves to portray cats, and does so with incredible detail and (as with all his work) a great sense of colour. What you might not know, is that he has been doing a lot of large scale work this year, both in his native France and elsewhere. Unfortunately, we don’t have one of his huge pieces (for example such as this one) in Barcelona yet, so Christian Guémy, if you read this… you know what to do! ;)

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Yep. Five hundred. Blogposts. Almost unbelievable, but very true! This calls for a little celebration, and so I thought we’d have a little street art fest today. To celebrate this 500th post and the fact that Barcelona’s street art is so very much alive with excellent artists, both local and visiting.

El Pez and his friends

These shots are from the park at Les Tres Xemeneies, at the bottom end of Avinguda del Paral.lel, where skaters and bikers hang out, do their tricks and where a few walls are actually permitted to be covered in tags, smiley fish and other works of spray art.

A pile of chestnuts

The walls were recently re-done, and so I am delighted to share these new works with you.

Angela davis

Anybody know who this is?

Black Panthers

There are 3 blocks of concrete which are covered on all sides, and artists like KRAM, El Pez and others (if you know who they are please let me know) have added their colourful touches to them, each in their own distinctive styles…

Sweet Dreams

… some romantic…

Chick on the side

Bunny with many faces

… or cute…

Having a whale of a time

… others hilarious or a little scary. But all, gorgeous, don’t you agree? In any case, I hope you like them!

Freddy?

Dear (blog) friends, I’m going to take a break from blogging for a bit. Not because I’m fed up with it, but to enjoy a little holiday and to take the time to regroup and focus on a new project, which I would also like to see reflected in the blog. But don’t worry, I’ll be back! With more beautiful and exciting stuff from around Barcelona. Have a wonderful Summer, and see you again soon!

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Another week has flown by and the weekend is on our doorstep. Before I go off to rest and relax, I wanted to share these 4 B/W portraits with you. I hope you like them. The cyclists, found on a doorway in Carrer Petritxol, is a homage to the famous painting by Ramon Casas that hangs in the 4 Gats restaurant. If you’ve been, you’ll recognise it.

Girl – Carrer Mirallers

The other three are all found on the same little street, Carrer Mirallers, tucked away in the Born. A pretty girl with a piercing look…

Embrace – Carrer Mirallers

A smoking embrace on one of the shop blinds, and that genius of surrealism, Dalí himself, with his pointy whiskers, by street artist Balu (who also did the pretty girl – anyone know who she is? – above).

Happy Monday! How about a hearty breakfast to kick-start the week? In Hong Kong (where I lived for 4 years) this would mean a bowl of congee, the main ingredient of which is rice. So let’s have some RICE for breakfast, shall we? Of the kind you can find on Barcelona’s streets.

Who’s that girl? – Carrer del Carme

RICE has been active and I found a few new stencils just the other day, all in El Raval. He or she (doesn’t anybody know anything about this artist?) appears to enjoy making stencil portraits of famous people. Such as these three… Have a wonderful week, everyone!

I believe a new street art form has made an appearance on Barcelona’s streets, for I have discovered a couple of places that have been wallpapered! Take these two neighboring shop windows on Carrer Joaquin Costa, all done up in yellow leopard print and apparently singing a little ditty. Rather fetching, right?

Window 2 – Carrer Joaquin Costa

Phone booths – Carrer de l’Or

And how about these completely wallpapered twin phone booths in Gràcia? Certainly looking much more interesting in yellow and black, and offering more privacy to their users (were it not that the phones are broken). In case someone missed the point of their ‘decorator’, one of the sides of this delightful example of street art clearly indicates that “this space is declared MINE”. Certainly done in a much nicer way than many of the tags around town, don’t you agree?

Like a bird in flight, I snapped him in action: Francisco de Pájaro working on one of his “art is trash” pieces, just around the corner from my home. As always, with discarded bits of rubbish, making use of the urban infrastructure and his characteristic, subversive style.

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Another Friday has rocked up, and after a busy week, I am ready to bring on the weekend! Guess you are too? What are your plans? I am starting off with a sketching session this evening at 7 pm (at Caravelle, in case you’d like to join in), during which I will be doing my best to create portraits of my fellow sketchers…

Character study – Carrer Honduras

I’ll probably start off with something like this (above) and hopefully progress to something a little more defined.

Triplets – Carrer Honduras

Not sure I’ll manage anything good, such as these handsome fellas, on the walls of a former factory near Clot, which now functions as a cultural centre, but I will try my best.

The brother – Carrer Honduras

The older guy – Carrer Astùries

I certainly don’t expect to produce anything as picture perfect as this older guy, tucked behind a window grille in Gràcia, but wouldn’t mind being able to create a minimalist portrait as funky as the one below. As long as it was a good likeness. Who knows? I just hope I will be inspired!

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I can’t help it, I’m a hopeless romantic. Moved by stories of the “happily-ever-after”, empathetically gutted by those of heart break. Imagine my delight at finding evidence of a love story – graffiti style on the corner of Carrer Tamarit with Carrer Comte d’Urgell! Graphic declarations of admiration and love by C215 and Alice for one another on different sides of the same traffic light control box. Aaaah, how sweet!

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There’s a new ‘kid’ in town. Or at least I think so, for I hadn’t seen any of his/her work before on the streets of Barcelona. All I know is that the artist is from Istres in France, and that I like it! So, without further ado: street art – RICE. Enjoy!

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Happy Tuesday! In recent months a new form of street art has appeared on Barcelona’s streets. They are humorous vignettes, carefully applied to road signs on various corners around town. It’s a sign!

Carrer Riera Alta

From now on, while walking around Barcelona’s beautiful streets, don’t just look at the gorgeous details on buildings, but check out the road signs around town and see if you can spot any of these vignettes…

Plaça Vila de Gràcia

I’m on the hunt for more of these fun examples of street art and will share them with you when I have gathered some more. Feel free to help me with this, so let me know if you find any around Barcelona, ok? Have a wonderfully humorous week!